Ocado chief slams non-dom move

The co-founder of Ocado has said the business would not have got off the
ground without funding from non-doms, becoming the latest business figure to
criticise the government’s crackdown.

Jason Gissing said: ‘We are irritated because the Chancellor has increased
capital gains tax in a knee-jerk reaction to criticism of the private equity
industry. [The tax] actually penalises people like us who have started a
business, created 3,000 jobs and created a new service. Then he says he’s going
to penalise the nondoms who finance businesses like ours and get them off the
ground.’

Ocado is understood to have raised half of its £300m start-up funding from
non-doms,The
Times reported. The business delivers Waitrose goods.

Separately, the paper reported that Tory donors had been furious about the
party bringing up the idea of taxing non-doms, which it did prior to the
government announcing its plans.

One donor said: ‘When the Conservatives came up with the idea of a charge I
know a lot of people were very, very annoyed because they felt that the party
was opening up Pandora’s Box and giving Labour the opportunity to move on the
issue.’